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Tech mainstays finally come together on something: littering more HD content with more DRM
Who says the big boys can't be friends? While Samsung, SanDisk, Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic would probably disagree with each other on just about everything, there are still three magical letters that can bring even the biggest rivals together: DRM. While the consortium is doing everything it can to avoid the term, there's no hiding the truth -- the temporarily-named 'Next Generation Secure Memory Initiative' is designed to protect HD content by using "unique ID (identification) technology for flash memory and robust copy protection based on public key infrastructure." Just when we thought Louis C.K. had proven that slapping DRM around something wasn't the best approach, here we go taking a few monumental steps in the wrong direction. In essence, it sounds as if they're crafting a way to distribute Blu-ray-quality material on SD cards and embedded memory (sound familiar?), and they're also hoping that this will "enable various HD content applications such as HD network download, broadcast content to-go and HD Digital Copy / Managed Copy from Blu-ray Disc." Notably, we're told that Android-based smartphones, tablets, TVs and Blu-ray products in particular can look forward to taking advantage -- in other words, Apple's going to keep doing what Apple does. If all goes well, they'll start licensing the new secure memory technology early next year, and if we had to guess, we'd say the adoption trajectory perfectly matches that of slotRadio. Good luck, folks -- you're going to need it.
Canon EOS 1000D washes ashore in BC, Canada, SD card reveals it was lost at sea for over a year (update)
What you're looking at was once a fully functional Canon EOS 1000D, now merely a relic of the sea (the Pacific Ocean, to be exact), which was recently posted on Google+. User Marcus Thompson, found the DSLR washed up near a wharf while on a diving job in Deep Bay British Columbia, Canada and decided to take it home to find out what could be salvaged. After removing and cleaning the SanDisk Extreme III SD card inside of it, he was successfully able to recover about 50 photos with EXIF data from August 2010, showcasing what's described to be a firefighter and his family on vacation. While he hasn't located the owner of the shooter turned coffee table decoration just yet, Marcus is currently asking the "Google+ hive mind" to help get the two reunited. If you're from BC area and want to help out -- or just curious to see this DSLR from more angles -- you'll find some pictures from the SD card and more information about the camera at the source link below. Update (5:00PM): The original Google+ post was updated within the last hour, noting that the owner of the camera has indeed been identified!
PlayStation Vita gets a content management app, plays nice with PS3 and PC
Worried your PlayStation Vita is going to be so full of repurchased PSP content that you won't be be able to store it all? Yeah, neither are we -- but if you want another place to keep your Vita's picture, video, music and game content, Sony says your PC and PS3 will do nicely. An application page on the Japanese PlayStation website details a Vita app that lets users transfer data between the three platforms, noting that content can be purchased on the PC or PS3, and then transferred to the Vita for use later. Gamers looking to save scratch on that not-so-optional memory card will be able to use this content sharing feature to get the most out of whatever size storage they can afford. Sure, 4GB of storage the cheapest Vita memory card offers isn't ideal, but at least Sony is throwing you a bone to make it work.
SD Association aims to provide authentication services with standardized smart-chip technology
The SD Association has already embraced some authentication measures to provide things like secure ebooks, but it's now looking to go the extra mile with a little help from GlobalPlatform. The two have announced today that they're collaborating on a standardized smart-chip technology for SD and microSD cards, which they hope will let the memory cards be used for everything from mobile payments and personal ID -- including near-field communication -- to things like mobile television subscriptions and other customized services. Of course, that's all still in the earliest stages, and there's no indication of a timeline for any of it just yet. The official press release is after the break.
SanDisk outs Extreme Pro SDXC, Mobile Ultra microSDXC, new Cruzer USB sticks
Okay, they're not depicted to scale -- but don't they look sweet? In addition to the Memory Vault, SanDisk also chose today to freshen up its SDXC and USB flash products, which should start appearing in candy stores from October. Top billing goes to the Extreme Pro SDXC with 95MB/s reads and purportedly world-beating 90MB/s writes, starting at $110 for 8GB and topping out at 64GB for untold dollars. The Mobile Ultra range for microSDXC-equipped phones and tablets also goes up to 64GB, with 30MB/s transfer rates and a starting price of $25 for 4GB. Then there's the tiny Cruzer Fit and pocket-friendly Cruzer Switch USB sticks starting at the $20 mark, plus a dime for good luck. Click the PR after the break for more sugary details.
Toshiba FlashAir WiFi SD Card will make your Eye-Fi's water
Eye-Fi's wireless cards push photos straight from digital cameras without cables, but what if you want to pull some pics back the other way? Toshiba's solving that problem with the two-way FlashAir, an 802.11 b/g/n enabled 8GB SD Card that can also exchange data directly with compatible devices. If pushing photos to a camera isn't your bag you can always always use FlashAir as a mountable wireless drive in your SD-enabled tablet. Sales won't begin in Japan until February 2012 and the price is rumored to be around $90 -- close to that of the equivalent Eye-Fi.
LetterBomb does game-free Wii hacking for System Menu 4.3
The myth of the unhackable Wii has long since been put to rest, but that hasn't stopped intrepid homebrew enthusiasts from coming up with new exploits. Case in point: LetterBomb. This particular Wii hack is a follow-up to BannerBomb, which was billed as a replacement for Twilight Hack -- all of which are capable of launching the homebrew channel sans hardware mods. BannerBomb stopped short at Menu 4.2, but LetterBomb is carrying the exploit banner, so to speak, for the next generation. Utilizing the console's Message Board, the hack requires an SD card, a Wii running System Menu 4.3, and a Wii MAC address. If you're looking to get your game-free Wii hack on, check out the source link for the full rundown.
Panasonic's DY-PS10 Pocket Server streams music to your iPhone, fits in your pocket as advertised
How to get all of the entertainment content you want onto your iPhone? If you live in Japan, have a free pocket, and don't mind shelling out the ¥14,800 ($191), Panasonic's Pocket Server DY-PS10 should do the trick. The handset-sized device can stream content from its built-in SD card slot to your iPhone / iPod touch via a wireless connection. The Pocket Server can handle H.264 files, JPEGs, and MP3s, and the battery should give you about 10 hours of playback. The device will go on sale September 15th in Japan. The rest of us, meanwhile, will have to find other things to fill our pockets with.
Iomega's SuperHero for iPhone provides an iTunes-free backup solution
Personally, I have no issue with plugging my iPhone into my Mac every evening before I head to bed, recharging it, backing up my contacts and photos, and syncing my podcasts and music when I want it to. But I've heard before that a surprising number of iPhone (and iPod touch) users don't ever connect their devices to iTunes, and that theory is supported by Apple's big drive to go "PC Free" in iOS 5, leaving a PC or Mac connection out of the equation completely. For those not interested in connecting their iPhones to an actual computer every evening, Iomega is there with its SuperHero dock system, which I saw earlier this year at CES and tried out recently. The device is basically just a dock which plugs into the wall, and has only a power cord input and an SD card slot on it. Combined with an app you can pick up free from the App Store (and in fact, you're prompted to download the app the first time you plug in), the dock automatically backs up photos and contacts onto an SD card, and charges your device. The device was $69.99 at launch, but is now available for as low as $39.99, and at that price, I can see a lot of good uses for it beyond just the most basic of someone who might not understand iTunes or deal with a full sync every time they plug an iPhone in. This could be a good solution for an office or school backup system, where you might not be able to install iTunes and run a full sync on a work PC. Or it might just be a good way to offload your contacts and photos, keeping them in yet another location. The actual setup runs smoothly -- it really is designed for newbies, as it only takes about three taps to install the app early on, and afterward the app runs without any prompting. Plug your iPhone into the dock and let it go. Backup of contacts is quick, though photos takes significantly longer. I just got back from a trip, and loading the 17 photos I took with my iPhone took around 30 minutes. Still, this kind of "set it and forget it" backup is very useful, and of course there are options to not run contact or photos backup if you don't want to. You can also restore contacts and photos directly from the dock itself, so if you ever need to replace your phone, that's all very easy to do, even without a computer. Unfortunately, I don't have multiple iPhones for testing, but presumably, you might be able to use this system to copy contacts over across multiple iPhones -- each backup file is named separately on the SD card (controlled by another option), but it might be possible to plug in a different iPhone, and restore the contacts from there. One issue I had is that there's no way of pausing or cancelling a backup in progress, short of just pulling your iPhone out of the dock. But then again, that works all right, and the sync will just pick up where it left off when you replace the phone, so it's probably better not to have the extra UI anyway. Finally, there's one more option to encrypt contacts with a password if you like, providing a layer of security (which might be important if you set this up at your workplace). That's easy enough to do, though you have to remember that the security is only as good as your password, which you re-enter every time you run a restore. Iomega's SuperHero is a solid little device with quite a few different uses. Originally, I thought it was meant more as a dummy-proof way to get your iPhone backed up, but after using it, I can see quite a few places where a PC free way to get your iPhone's contacts and photos saved on an SD card could come in handy. It also works with the iPod touch. Even in Apple's brand new world of iCloud, where all of this information will be automatically saved on their servers, I can see reasons why the especially careful or paranoid might still want that extra backup functionality built into a charger, and especially after the drops in the SuperHero's price since launch, the SuperHero is a good deal. Iomega's made a weird little creature here with this dock, but it seems destined to be the platypus of iOS backup, sticking to old ways even when normal evolution might have deemed otherwise.
Sony PlayStation Vita's removable memory looks like it's an SD card, but it isn't
Sony's seen fit to tell us many of the PlayStation Vita's specs, how much it'll cost ($249 for WiFi, $299 for 3G), and who gets it (everyone). Amidst all the hullabaloo at E3 2011, however, we missed seeing that Sony was showing off the new handheld's internal memory cards. Good thing an eagle-eyed member of the public snapped a pic of the 4, 8, 16, and 32GB cards on the show floor. They look awfully similar to garden variety SD cards, only there's a little notch in the side confirming they hew to Sony's unfortunate habit of using proprietary storage formats. The cost of the cards remains shrouded in secrecy, but life's more fun when a little mystery's involved, right?
How to install Lion from an SD card
After we linked to instructions for how to burn a Lion boot disc earlier this week, Nature's Eye Studios contacted MacStories to let them know they figured out how to get the new OS to boot off a SD card. After downloading Lion from the developer site, the video maker proceeds to wipe a SD card and use the repair option with the Lion disk image as the source to create the boot. Once you've created the backup, you can use the SD card as a Lion installer if needed, then pull a backup from Time Capsule. Keep in mind that the final release of Lion will include a restore partition and Recovery Mode, meaning that you'll be able to boot your machine from a clean Lion installer at any point without the use of external media (assuming your hard drive's not wonky). While this means you're a lot less likely to need install media down the road, it's nice to know the option is there. Check out the video below to see this process in action.
AirStash wireless flash drive (and iOS app) review
We love ourselves extra storage as much as the next guy, and we also happen to hate cables as much the next guy, so whenever a device promises some extra wiggle room with no strings attached, we're all ears. The AirStash is a wireless flash drive that lets you expand the capacity of your mobile device up to 32GB at a time through swappable SD cards, freeing up local storage for apps and the like. We first got our paws on one back at CES, but now that it's a shipping product and has a finalized iOS app, we gave it a quick shakedown as promised to see whether this gadget is worth dipping into your personal stash for. %Gallery-124463%
LCD-equipped Cisco REN301 Residential Gateway stops by FCC, reveals all its dirty secrets
Ah, the all too familiar WiFi troubleshooting dance: the network goes down, you dig through the closet for an Ethernet cable, saunter over to the router, jack yourself in, type in the IP address, and start poking around at your settings. Cisco's REN301 Residential Gateway (a fancy way of saying "router"), which just passed through the FCC, could make things at least a little bit easier thanks to its built-in LCD screen and capacitive touch controls. Wave your hand over the display to bring it to life and you can check the status of your connections, modify some basic settings, and peruse a log of calls that have come in over the SIP VoIP phone jacks. The REN301, which has a single band 802.11b/g/n radio, can also turn USB drives and SD cards into NAS storage -- the company even throws in a 32GB card to get you started. We don't have a price or release date, but since it's been splayed open for federal regulators we probably won't have to wait long. There's a couple of pics of the router's UI after the break.
Eye-Fi Direct Mode is here, turns tablets and smartphones into must-have camera accessories
Eye-Fi promised that its Direct Mode for beaming photos straight from your camera to your smartphone or tablet would land this week, and we're pleased to announce the company has kept its word. Just pop your X2 card into a computer, launch the Eye-Fi Center, and you should be prompted to install the new firmware -- version 4.5022. All you have to do then is install the Eye-Fi app on your Android or iOS device, pair it with your camera (you did remember to put the card back in your camera, right?), and you're ready to rock and/or roll. From then on, any pics you snap with your Eye-Fi-equipped cam will automatically beam themselves to your handheld, and sharing on Picasa or Eye-Fi View is just a tap or two away. If you need a bit of a refresher on what Direct Mode looks like in action, just check out our hands-on from CES.
Eye-Fi launching new 8GB wireless SD card today, kicking out Direct Mode for iOS and Android next week
Remember how Eye-Fi was cooking up some software to let their WiFi-enabled SD memory cards sling photos directly to your tablet or phone? Here's some sweet news -- starting next week, Direct Mode will be a free download for any Eye-Fi X2 card, and debut alongside companion apps in the Android Market and iTunes App Store. Moreover, the company's celebrating the launch of the new transfer protocol with a brand-new card, the $80 Eye-Fi Mobile X2, which should be available for purchase online momentarily and make its merry way to Best Buy and Apple stores by April 17th. Basically, the Mobile is a redux of the $50 Connect X2, but with double the storage capacity (8GB) and Direct Mode pre-installed -- though a price drop on the top-of-the-line Pro X2 (to $100) will add geotagging and RAW support for just one Jackson more. Need a refresher on how Direct Mode works? Peek our CES video demo (and a hefty press release) after the break.
Delkin Elite 633 claims to be the fastest SDHC card with 80MBps write speeds
We can't say we're pleased that camera makers still haven't called an armistice in their megapixel war, but a race for the speediest memory card is one battle we can get behind. Delkin says its 32GB Elite 633 SDHC is the fastest in the world, with 80MBps and 95MBps write and read speeds, respectively, handily trumping Sony's new Memory Sticks that so recently impressed us. This card's ideal for people who shoot gobs of 1080p video, 3D movies, and high-resolution shots coupled with RAW files, but with a price of $440, it's only worth it for pros. And debutants.
Philips' new camcorder comes with 23x zoom and WiFi, but no price or release date
Philips makes plenty of audio / video equipment for use when consuming our content, but until now, the company didn't offer many options on the creating end. Well, Philips fanboys (they exist, don't they?), take a gander at your next must-buy purchase -- the ESee HD camcorder touts a 23x zoom, 1080p recording to an SD card, touchscreen viewfinder (of unknown size), WiFi for uploading vids (so as not to keep fans waiting for your next cinematic masterpiece), and an audio zoom feature. Yeah, a zoom for your audio. Details about pricing and availability are nowhere to be found, but not knowing makes you want it all the more, right? [Thanks, Jakob]
Dreaming of the iPad 2: One geek's wishlist
Last night on the TUAW talkcast, Kelly asked me to speculate about what the mythical upcoming iPad 2 might look like. This was, of course, before preliminary details from Engadget apparently rolled in. In response, I ended up going on a little more in depth than I initially expected. Turns out that while I am completely unspoiled for the next iPad and have no inside information, I did have quite a bunch of strong opinions about what I'd like to see. After the leak today, I decided to revisit what I had discussed on the talkcast last night. I put together this compilation of my iPad wishlist, matching my wishes to the rumored feature list. Now, we don't know for sure that what we posted about earlier today are the true specs, but they are a terrific jumping off point for discussing what features the iPad 2 should be introducing.
Eye-Fi's Direct Mode hands-on: from camera to tablet in seconds (video)
We have to say, we're pretty pumped about Eye-Fi's new Direct Mode, and that's not just because it's free -- CEO Jef Holove showed us how his wireless SD cards can fire snapshots from a point-and-shoot camera straight to a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and it looks like a breeze. Once the free update launches later this year, you'll just need to download the Eye-Fi app, and select your Eye-Fi X2 card from a list to permanently pair them -- much like Bluetooth or a WiFi access point -- and then whenever you shoot within range, the pics will automatically spirit themselves to your Android, and can send them to Picasa or Eye-Fi View from there with an additional tap. See Direct Mode do its thing in the video above.
Iomega SuperHero iPhone dock backs up photos to SD memory card
We forget how important our photos are until we lose them. The 5 megapixel camera in the iPhone 4 encourages a lot of picture taking, but most of us put our phones on a charger over night instead of docking with our computers, so our photos aren't getting backed up. The Iomega® SuperHero™ Backup and Charger for iPhone aims to solve that problem with a dock that backs up your camera roll photos and contacts while recharging your iPhone. Keep it by your bed, and you won't forget. The charger and accompanying backup app will be available later this month. To make photo backup part of your daily routine, you'll need to download the free SuperHero iPhone Backup app from the Apple app store, and run the app when you dock your phone. The dock and app support iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4. For US$69.99, the Iomega SuperHero dock comes with a 4 GB SD memory card, but if you shoot a lot, or keep a year's worth of photos and videos on your camera roll like some friends I know, you can swap that out for a 16 GB or 32 GB SD card. If your phone is lost, damaged or stolen, you should first restore your latest backup from iTunes (you are backing up at least occasionally, aren't you?), then restore last night's backup of contacts and photos from the dock. The dock doesn't back up email or apps, but your email is on your email server and you can re-download apps from the App Store, so those aren't as critical as your once-in-a-lifetime photo ops. To get notified when the dock is available, sign up at the Iomega SuperHero product page, and while you're waiting, head on over to Engadget to watch Iomega's video ad reminding you just how many moments can lead to needing this dock. [via Engadget]
